O America: Discovery in a New Land by
William Least Heat-Moon
My rating:
4 of 5 stars
This is my first book by the author although I do have a couple others of his, his non-fiction travel books. This book, of course, is fictional being set during a few months in 1848.
An English doctor, Nathaniel Trennant, travels to America to see this land and get a sense of it. He was granted free travel overseas by the ship captain who believed there were unicorns and wanted the doctor to prove it one way or other. Of course, the "unicorn" horn turns out to be from a narwal. But the doctor earned his keep by treating the immigrant passengers, which gave him a first glance into who populates this new America. This book is essentially his log books of his travels.
Once docked the doctor finds himself in a slave market and is astonished at this business. Soon after he discovers an escaped slave whom he helps as he abhors the slavery business and so he gains a companion, although now they need to run from the slave catchers. They spend a few weeks with a religious community that shelters them, but soon they must leave. They travel on, mostly by waterways on paddleboats and meet various people and assumptions. They are hunted by a slave catcher throughout most of the book.
In the later part of the book, they befriend an Osage elder. He provides even more philosophy about the country, how it was and now has become. They all experience many adventures during the travelog
I listened to the audiobook version, but it was not the best way to read this book. The narrator had a very sing-song type way of speaking that was fairly distracting. I tried several different speeds, but it didn’t help much. After a while I got somewhat used to it but was happy it was finished.
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